MetaFilter posts tagged with roman

Polanski arrested

acb — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:55:58 -0800

Film director Roman Polanski, who won numerous awards for films like Chinatown and The Pianist, has been detained for extradition to the US, whilst travelling to Switzerland to collect a lifetime achievement award at the Zürich Film Festival. Polanski spent the past three decades in exile in France, which (unlike Switzerland) has no extradition treaty with the US, after being convicted of having raped a 13-year-old girl at a party. He was nonetheless able to sue for libel in the UK despite being a fugitive there. The victim has asked for charges to be dropped, though Polanski has, until now, been a wanted man in the US. If he is extradited, he faces up to life imprisonment.

Richer than Croesus?

electricinca — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:48:33 -0800

The Sunday Times have published the 2008 edition of their annual Rich List. The full list of the 1000 wealthiest people in Britain is not online yet but they have published a list of the top 150 (pdf). So now you're richer than Croesus what do you spend your wealth on? Not apparently on Updown Court the most expensive house in Britain, which despite being a very reasonable GBP 70 million is still unsold since going on the market in 2005. And not on prostitutes if the Duke of Westminster has learned his lesson since last year.

Time Has Not Been Kind To Curses

amyms — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:47:02 -0800

"Curse Tablets are small sheets of lead, inscribed with messages from individuals seeking to make gods and spirits act on their behalf and influence the behaviour of others against their will. The motives are usually malign and their expression violent, for example to wreck an opponent’s chariot in the circus, to compel a person to submit to sex or to take revenge on a thief. Letters and lines written back to front, magical ‘gibberish’ and arcane words and symbols often lend the texts additional power to persuade. In places where supernatural agents could be contacted, thrown into sacred pools at temples, interred with the dead or hidden by the turning post at the circus, these tablets have survived to be found by archaeologists."

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

carsonb — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 11:06:19 -0800

How to move an obelisk .

Libya

Firas — Mon, 14 May 2007 08:52:11 -0800

Libya is a desert, yes, but if you trace your fingers through the moonlit sand and listen, carefully, you may hear ancient whispers: of Apollo's love of Cyrene; of prehistoric hunters making Rock Art [1, 2, 3], back when the Sahara was wet; of Phoenicians subdued by Greeks, of Romans followed by Byzantines, all leaving ruins that Libya is famous for [Cyrene, Leptis Magna, Sabratha, et cetera]; of desert soldiers in World War II, remembered in Graves and Memorials; of the occupying Italians, who responded to Omar Mukhtar's resistance of the Fascists by rounding Libyans into concentration camps; of the camps' prisoners, one of whom wrote this famous poem: "My only illness is the torturing of our young women, with their bodies exposed ... how my speech has become subdued, the humiliation of our noble and leading men and the loss of my gazelle-like horse..."; of more culture, more memories from this land that witnessed the wrenching passion of all man's history—whispering in the very dust that made his soul.

Roman descendants found in China?

stbalbach — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 11:24:24 -0800

Roman descendants found in China? DNA tests will be done in a remote Gobi village to see if the blond-haired Chinese residents are related to Crassus' lost legion of c. 53 BC, as suggested by historian Homer Dubbs in 1957 and debated since.

Middle Eastern troops at Hadrian's Wall in the early fifth century

greycap — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 06:05:51 -0800

Iraqi peacekeepers sent to the Scottish border... 1600 years ago. The Notitia Dignitatum, the Roman equivalent of an organisation chart for the imperial bureaucracy in the fifth century, contains a reference to soldiers from the Tigris stationed at Hadrian's Wall. More on the Notitia here; more on Hadrian's Wall here, including a 3D tour of a fort near the Wall, and tablets discovered at another fort (including a request by a commanding officer for "more beer").

Let's Party Like It's MCMXCIX

jack_mo — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 04:30:40 -0800

Roman Numerals and Arithmetic

Piranesi, etc.

misteraitch — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 13:56:06 -0800

The Works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi: high-resolution scans of all of Piranesi’s etchings. Also, the plates from Les Ruines De Pompei by François Mazois (1812-38), and, the complete 9-volume Le Antichità di Ercolano Esposte (The Antiquities discovered in Herculaneum) published in Naples from 1755-62. Also, at the same site (UT-PICURE: the Center for Research on Pictorial Cultural Resources, at The University of Tokyo), images from the Stibbert Collection of Japanese costume.

What have the Romans ever done for us?

gimonca — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 05:56:59 -0800

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? Brought peace? Oh. Peace? Shut up!

Ludite pilam!

stopgap — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 00:07:06 -0800

Roman ball games and Roman board games. Complete with literary references, ancient artwork, and instructions for playing the games yourself. So let's all sing: Aufer me ad arenam (to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame").

Pope Michael Has Many Computer Problems

eustacescrubb — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 03:52:28 -0800

The real Vatican is in Kansas. "On July 16, 1990 the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church elected David Bawden as Pope Michael, ending an almost 32 year long interegnum."

Glass in the Roman World

carter — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 07:00:54 -0800

Vitrum: Glass Between Art and Science in the Roman World , an exhibition hosted by the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, describes the use of glass in different areas of Roman life: technology, daily life, architecture, and science. Each of the items in the themed galleries is linked to a large, high-resolution image; some beautiful examples of 2000-year-old glass include: a decorative glass hexagon, a blue glass cup from pompeii, and a striped mosaic glass cup.

Passion as a Roman Ritual Sacrifice

pandaharma — Sun, 14 Mar 2004 15:47:17 -0800

"The story of the Passion is the story of a human sacrifice, done unknowingly, and yet according to Roman ritual sacrifice structure."

Warrior Queen

homunculus — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 11:32:45 -0800

Boudicca (also known as Boadicea) was the queen of the Celtic Iceni tribe in eastern Britain in 60 AD. As recorded by Tacitus and Cassius Dio, she led a brutal revolt against the Romans and razed London and Southwark. There's a famous statue of her at Westminster Bridge, and Masterpiece Theatre has produced a new historical drama about her, Warrior Queen.

ides of march

stbalbach — Sat, 15 Mar 2003 13:59:52 -0800

Today is the Ides of March. What is the Ides of March? It is March 15th in the ancient Roman calender, the first day of the Roman New Year and the first day of spring. The Roman calender refered to days by names not numbers, thus each month has an Ide day, although not always on the 15th. The Ides of March is best known as the day Julius Caesar was assasinated in the Senate (44 BC) and made famous by the Shakespeare line "Beware the Ides of March". It modern times it has come to symbolize foreboding and bad luck. Iggy Pop sang about it prophetically with todays current events, and in Rome where it all started it's a good day to Toga Party.

The Roman Army

moonbiter — Mon, 24 Feb 2003 10:48:18 -0800

Modeling the Roman Army. The author of this site uses CAD software to examine the mechanics and problems of manuevering large masses of men in ancient warfare. Good stuff for people interested in the subject.

plexi — Thu, 19 Sep 2002 10:00:32 -0800

The Ideal Prepuce. Enter the posthe and the akroposthion.

Ulwen — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 04:25:02 -0800

Is this the last days of the Empire, or just the beginning? America the most powerful country since Roman Empire. I for sure hope that the good old US of A don´t meet the same destiny as the Roman Empire...But!? Has there been any country (empire) that survived being the biggest and best(?). Usually i read a lot about Swedens time of glory some couple of hundred years ago, now hoping that my grandchildren won´t read the same about the States. Should we be worried about what the history tells us?

lagado — Mon, 04 Dec 2000 03:06:51 -0800

2,000 year old Roman "Titanic" found in the sands 10 yards from the Sicilian shore. The vessel - up to 150ft long and equipped with ancient luxuries including candelabras, a hot tub and religious shrine - is thought to have ferried the Roman super-rich along the Mediterranean coast to various ports en route.

veruca — Sun, 02 Apr 2000 12:34:55 -0800

Ancient Roman erotica to be unveiled, "once thought too scandalous for mere mortals to view."